Americans Toss Out 40 Percent of All Food
Thu Nov 26, 9:46 am ET
While many Americans feast on turkey and all the fixings today, a new study finds food waste per person has shot up 50 percent since 1974. Some 1,400 calories worth of food is discarded per person each day, which adds up to 150 trillion calories a year.
The study finds that about 40 percent of all the food produced in the United States is tossed out.
Meanwhile, while some have plenty of food to spare, a recent report by the Department of Agriculture finds the number of U.S. homes lacking "food security," meaning their eating habits were disrupted for lack of money, rose from 4.7 million in 2007 to 6.7 million last year.
About 1 billion people worldwide don't have enough to eat, according to the World Food Program.
Growing problem
The new estimate of food waste, published in the journal PLoS ONE, is a relatively straightforward calculation: It's the difference between the U.S. food supply and what's actually eaten, which was estimated by using a model of human metabolism and known body weights.
The result, from Kevin Hall and colleagues at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, is about 25 percent higher than similar estimates made in recent years.
Last year, an international group estimated that up to 30 percent of food - worth about $48.3 billion - is wasted each year in the United States. That report concluded that despite food shortages in many countries, plenty of food is available to feed the world, it just doesn't get where it needs to go.
Previous calculations were typically based on interviews with people and inspections of garbage, which Hall's team figures underestimates the waste.
Related problems
ScienceNOW, an online publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, reports that food waste occurs at the manufacturing level and in distribution, but more than half is wasted by consumers, according to a separate study earlier this year by Jeffery Sobal, a sociologist at Cornell University.
Meanwhile, Hall and colleagues say a related and growing problem, obesity, may be fueled by the increased availability of food in this country and the incessant marketing of it. All that extra food is bad for the environment, too.
Addressing the oversupply of food in the United States "could help curb to the obesity epidemic as well as reduce food waste, which would have profound consequences for the environment and natural resources," the scientists write. "For example, food waste is now estimated to account for more than one quarter of the total freshwater consumption and more than 300 million barrels of oil per year representing about 4 percent of the total U.S. oil consumption."
Friday, November 27, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
2's Day 2k9
Happy Tuesday!!!!!
God is good and it's almost the most thankful of turkey days. The move into the new house is going rather slower than I predicted or wanted. The wife and the barking, hairy children love the new place.
There's yet ANOTHER story making the rounds about young adults moving back in with their respective moms and dads.
The French say they don't like war, but don't seem to mind making it easier for others to do so. The French are marketing a new high tech warship to the Russian navy this week. Brazil has agreed to buy five French Scorpene submarines, one of them with nuclear propulsion, and 50 Cougar helicopters for about $12 billion. All would be assembled in Brazil.
China executed two people Tuesday for their roles in a tainted milk powder scandal in which at least six children died and more than 300,000 became sick. Why can't they be like the Japanese corporate crooks and commit suicide?
Regis Philbin will be taking a leave of absence from "Ripa" to undergo a hip replacement surgery. GWS Regis!
While I'm NOT a huge fan of American Idol runner up Adam Lambert nor his proclivities towards males, he is a definite rocker. ABC received a paltry 1500 complaints about Lambert's sexy performance and lip lock on a male guitar player during the network's broadcast of the "American Music Awards" Sunday night. Both dudes look like a lady to me.
At the ripe old age of 26, Joe Mauer now has an AL Most Valuable Player award to add to a jam-packed trophy case that already holds three batting titles, three Silver Sluggers and two Gold Gloves.
Steeler back up Charlie Batch is out for the season with a wrist injury he suffered while he spelled Ben Roethlisberger in last Sunday's OT loss to the 2-7 KC Chiefs. Too bad St Pierre is now with othr former Steelers in Arizona.
On this day in 1971, after collecting a ransom payout of $200,000, "D. B. Cooper" leaped out of the rear stairway of the airplane he had hijacked over the Pacific Northwest and disappeared.
Well, it's nearly 8:30am, been at work for 2 hours, 10 to go. I'm now ready to get the day over with.
In case I don't' see ya, Happy Turkey day, all!!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Turkey Day Week!!
It's nearly EATFEST 2009 and I feel FINE!
Whilst I have Thanksgiving Day off, I do have to work the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afterwards. looking forward to all the football this weekend.
Check out the stories below........
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1 in 3 laptops die in first three years
So your new laptop computer died in inside of a year. "I'll never buy a computer from [insert manufacturer name here] again!" I've heard the protests time and time again.
Yeah, maybe you got a lemon, but no matter which brand you bought, you truly are not alone in this situation: An analysis of 30,000 new laptops from SquareTrade, which provides aftermarket warranty coverage for electronics products, has found that in the first three years of ownership, nearly a third of laptops (31 percent) will fail.
That's actually better than I would have expected based on my experience and observations on how people treat their equipment.
SquareTrade has more detailed information (the full PDF of the company's study is available here) on the research on its website. But here are some highlights about how, why, and which laptops fail:
> 20.4 percent of failures are due to hardware malfunctions. 10.6 percent are due to drops, spills, or other accidental damage.
> Netbooks have a roughly 20 percent higher failure rate due to hardware malfunctions than standard laptops. The more you pay for your laptop, the less likely it is to fail in general (maybe because you're more careful with it?).
> The most reliable companies? A shocker: Toshiba and Asus, both with below a 16 percent failure rate due to hardware malfunction.
> The least reliable brands? Acer, Gateway, and HP. HP's hardware malfunction rate, the worst in SquareTrade's analysis, is a whopping 25.6 percent.
None of the numbers are overly surprising. As SquareTrade notes, "the typical laptop endures more use and abuse than nearly any other consumer electronic device (with the possible exception of cell phones)," so failures are really inevitable.
Want to keep your notebook running for longer than a few years? Ensure your laptop is as drop-proofed as possible (use a padded bag or case, route cords so they won't be tripped on, lock children in another room), and protect it as best you can from heat and dust.
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Dirty Secrets of Black Friday 'Doorbusters'
by Parija B. Kavilanz
Friday, November 20, 2009provided by
Here are a few things bargain-hungry consumers need to know before they hit stores before dawn the day after Thanksgiving.
Here's a Black Friday reality check: Of the hordes of pre-dawn shoppers who line up for hours outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving, most will not bag the best bargains that appear in merchants' circulars.
Look at the fine print that appears next to an advertised "doorbuster deal" at the bottom of the page in this year's circulars.
It will either say "While supplies last," "Minimum 2 per store," "No rainchecks" or "All items are available in limited quantities."
A quick scan through a few of this year's Black Friday circulars show quantities as low as a "minimum of 5 per store" on some models of large plasma and HDTVs and popular brands of home appliances such as a washer-dryer pair.
Should Black Friday deal hunters feel cheated? Yes they should, say some retail experts.
"It's a sleazy practice," said Craig Johnson, retailing expert and president of retail consulting group Customer Growth Partners.
"I am old school," said Johnson. "If a retailer is advertising a juicy deal and they are not prepared to have in sufficient quantity, don't advertise it. Or give consumers a raincheck."
Johnson said it's not enough for retailers to mention that they'll have such limited quantities of a product on one of the most-hyped shopping days of the year.
"Retailers aren't winning any customers. They are just pissing off people," he said. "It's poor retailing practice."
Unfortunately for consumers, more examples abound.
CNNMoney.com spoke to industry experts to uncover a few dirty secrets of Black Friday deals.
Limited quantities: Advertising a Black Friday deal as "limited quantities" is bogus, said Johnson.
"The only time it makes sense to have only two or three [items] in stock is if the deal is on a $2 million gift product that appears in the Neiman Marcus holiday catalog," he said.
Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and editor of Consumer World, agreed with Johnson.
"C'mon guys. Give me a break," said Dworsky. "How can you be the size of a retailer like Sears and only get a minimum of five per store, yet devote big space in your circular to advertise that deal?
Sears (SHLD, Fortune 500) has not officially revealed its Black Friday sales. However, the company confirmed to CNNMoney.com that two of its post-Thanksgiving deals include a Samsung 40-inch 1080p LCD HDTV for $599.99, "Only while quantities last, minimum three per store, no rainchecks."
The other is a Kenmore 3.5-cubic-foot high-efficiency washer and 5.8-cubic foot dryer pair for $579.98, "Limit four per store, no rainchecks."
"Sure, you probably have more, but how do you put out a circular to millions of households and only have three?," Dworsky asked.
When asked for a comment, Sears spokesman Tom Aiello said he was "not comfortable" addressing the issue of limited quantities for some Black Friday deals.
Such short supply on deals are not only annoying but can also be dangerous to Black Friday shoppers.
"We saw the stampede at a Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) store in New York last year on Black Friday that led to an employee's death," said Burt Flickinger, managing director of consulting firm Strategic Resource Group. "The stampede happened because so many of the deals were advertised as limited supply."
One retailer, while not explaining why its advertised deals are in such limited supplies, said it is taking measures to better handle the Black Friday rush.
"From going down the line and handing out doorbuster tickets that guarantee a purchase in advance of the store opening, to printing the minimum quantities in the circular, we go to great lengths to ensure that the Black Friday consumer knows exactly how many items will be at the store and whether or not they will be able to purchase one prior to entering the store," Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500) wrote in an e-mail.
What do you mean this HDTV is a "derivative?" Some of the holiday electronics with those low sale prices are derivatives, models that have a few less features than a standard model in that product line, said Dworsky.
The difference can be subtle. "The image contrast ratio might be 20,000 in a derivative model versus 30,000 in a standard model," he said. "Most consumers probably won't even notice the difference."
A report earlier this month in Consumer Reports called attention to HDTV models from Samsung and Sony advertised in Black Friday deals that appear to be "derivatives." The report said these one-off TVs "with unfamiliar model numbers" are usually cheaper than the standard model in their class.
Dworsky cautions that retailers usually don't advertise these models as derivatives. "There's no way the average consumer will know that the TV model they are buying is not the standard one unless they are savvy enough to compare their model numbers," he said.
Which Black Friday deals are online? "Many retailers will say that their Black Friday deals are available online," said Dworsky. "But they're not nice enough to tell you which ones."
"How about telling me which exact ones so I can shop online from home and I'm not in my pajamas at 5 a.m. in front of your store," he said.
Online deals that never get shipped: Case in point: Sears. Last year, one of Sears' hottest Black Friday doorbuster deal was on a Kenmore washer-dryer pair for $600.
Even though the retailer advertised that deal to be in "limited quantities," the company decided to honor every customer order made on that deal last Black Friday.
Big mistake. The manufacturer could not ramp up production fast enough. Some customers waited months before their order was shipped. Others were sold a substitute model, that was "comparable or even better" for the same deal price, said Sears' Aiello.
Lesson learned. "We will not be doing that again this year," he said.
Be careful if you're shopping online on Black Friday, said Dworsky.
"Since retailers don't have a live inventory online you run the risk of getting an e-mail weeks later that your order had been delayed or worse, canceled, because the product is out of stock," he said.
About those rainchecks: Finally, if a retailer does offer you a raincheck on a deal, it could still turn out to be an empty promise, Flickinger warned.
"A raincheck doesn't guarantee that you will eventually get that elusive Black Friday deal," he said. "Consumers can go weeks waiting and hoping, and the retailer may never get more of the product shipped to its stores."
Copyrighted, CNNMoney. All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry
PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.
Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.
Although there are no formal laws in this southeast Pennsylvania town against drying laundry outside, a town official called Froehlich to ask her to stop drying clothes in the sun. And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about.
"They said it made the place look like trailer trash," she said, in her yard across the street from a row of neat, suburban houses. "They said they didn't want to look at my 'unmentionables.'"
Froehlich says she hangs her underwear inside. The effervescent 54-year-old is one of a growing number of Americans demanding the right to dry laundry on clotheslines despite local rules and a culture that frowns on it.
Their interests are represented by Project Laundry List, a group that argues people can save money and reduce carbon emissions by not using their electric or gas dryers, according to the group's executive director, Alexander Lee.
Widespread adoption of clotheslines could significantly reduce U.S. energy consumption, argued Lee, who said dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use.
Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws restricting the rights of local authorities to stop residents using clotheslines. Another five states are considering similar measures, said Lee, 35, a former lawyer who quit to run the non-profit group.
'RIGHT TO HANG'
His principal opponents are the housing associations such as condominiums and townhouse communities that are home to an estimated 60 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population. About half of those organizations have 'no hanging' rules, Lee said, and enforce them with fines.
Carl Weiner, a lawyer for about 50 homeowners associations in suburban Philadelphia, said the no-hanging rules are usually included by the communities' developers along with regulations such as a ban on sheds or commercial vehicles.
The no-hanging rules are an aesthetic issue, Weiner said.
"The consensus in most communities is that people don't want to see everybody else's laundry."
He said opposition to clotheslines may ease as more people understand it can save energy and reduce greenhouse gases.
"There is more awareness of impact on the environment," he said. "I would not be surprised to see people questioning these restrictions."
For Froehlich, the "right to hang" is the embodiment of the American tradition of freedom.
"If my husband has a right to have guns in the house, I have a right to hang laundry," said Froehlich, who is writing a book on the subject.
Besides, it saves money. Line-drying laundry for a family of five saves $83 a month in electric bills, she said.
Kevin Firth, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in a Dublin, Pennsylvania housing association, said he was fined $100 by the association for putting up a clothesline in a common area.
"It made me angry and upset," said Firth, a 27-year-old carpenter. "I like having the laundry drying in the sun. It's something I have always done since I was a little kid."
(Editing by Mark Egan and Paul Simao)
Saturday, November 14, 2009
T'was The Week Before Turkey Day 2009
Big changes for me and the missus as we move into a smaller quaint li'l house just down the road from where we've pretty much have been off and on for around 16 years. The "big" move in date is(was) Monday, November 16th.
Just sitting here on a slower than usual Saturday morning here at work watching the late Bob Ross paint on of his beautiful masterpieces on public television on the big plasma TV waiting on the afternoon of college football to begin. I will be flipping between the Tennessee/Ole Miss, Clemson/NC State.
Gonna watch some of the Thanksgiving themed cooking shows while at work here this weekend to get some ideas for 'turkey day'. Of course to me, some of the ideas are way too fancy or unusual. I DO have that Wednesday and Thursday off. I work the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday after Thanksgiving.
It's the middle of November here in Greenville, SC and the temperature today will be 3 or 4 degrees shy of 80 degrees. Now this is after a couple of 3 freezes in October.
So they've apparently found water on the moon. NASA says the impact they made a few weeks ago into a shadowy crater at the moon has revealed enough frozen water to fill at least five gallon buckets. An official NASA unit of measurement, hahaha! I'm a huge fan of NASA; always have. I was wondering about the moon. I know it controls the tides here on mother gaia (Earth). What if the moon consisted of mostly water underneath a thin shell of "space dirt"? What if major drilling or development actually would cause great harm to it and subsequently and dramatically affect the earth's oceans? Hmmm. BTW, Roland Emerich's latest CGI-ed destruction of Earth, "2012", was released yesterday. Coincidence?
The mighty Tarheels take own coach Butch Davis' old team, the Miami Hurricanes this afternoon at 3:30pm ET. Butch took the 'canes form obscurity to National prominence in the 80's. We're still waiting on him to work that same magic at Chapel Hill here at year 3.Earlier this week. the mighty #6 ranked Tarheel basketball team defeated 2 division 2 teams. YAY!
The Steelers face a tough test against the Bengals Sunday.
The United States' first marijuana cafe opened on Friday in Portland, Oregon this week.
Babes Carrie Prejean and Sarah Palin are being destroyed by national TV media this week and probably continuing for the next few days because of books they've recently written.
I'm outta here. Take care and have a great day.
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